brûlévsbrûlezTell them apart

Quick tell: brûlé is a adjective, brûlez is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“brûlé” is an adjective and “brûlez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,533
“brûlé” frequency rank
#35,408
“brûlez” frequency rank
42941
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature brûlé brûlez
Definition Qui a été soumis à l’action du feu, a subi une brûlure. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe brûler.

Same sound, different letters: brûlé vs brûlez

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. brûlé runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against brûlez's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
brûlé
6 ch
brûlez

Ear matches; page differs - brûlé and brûlez

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: brûlé and brûlez carry the same recorded pronunciation, \bʁy.le\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42941, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

brûlé is recorded at frequency rank #7,533, classified as anadj, pronounced \bʁy.le\. brûlez is at rank #35,408, tagged as averb, pronounced \bʁy.le\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 42941, this pair ranks #221,772 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of brûlé vs brûlez

Shared letters: blrû. Private to "brûlé": é. Private to "brûlez": ez.

"brûlé" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "brûlez" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "brûlé" and "brûlez" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "brûlé" is an adjective and "brûlez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "brûlé" or "brûlez"?
"brûlé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,533 in our French list, against #35,408 for "brûlez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "brûlé" / "brûlez". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "brûlé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "brûlez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #221,772 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "brûlé" and "brûlez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "brûlez vs Brunei". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #221,772 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list